


There's Something in the Water

by clare009



Category: The 100
Genre: F/M, Humor, Pregnancy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-03-30 04:29:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3922930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clare009/pseuds/clare009
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I knew about the infertility drug in our water supply. How else do you control a population? We had to petition for the right to have a child, and that was only granted if there was an opening in the population. I would even administer the injections to counteract the drug so that a couple could conceive. I should have known that, eventually, the contraceptive would wear off."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gravid

It was getting harder to do up her jeans, even with a piece of string through the buttonhole--a trick Raven had shown her. Her fingers felt thick as she tried to tie the bit of string, but every time she thought she had it, it would fall apart.

Abby huffed in frustration, then gave up completely and flopped back down on her cot. Absurdly, tears began to roll down her cheeks and she had to suppress the urge to howl. This was ridiculous--crying over not being able to dress herself. But it was hard to tie the damn string when she couldn't see past the absolutely humongous swell of her belly.

She ran a hand over the offensive bulge, and felt the child inside her shift. 

Random bouts of tears were another apparent side-effect of this pregnancy, and smiling through them, like she was doing now, wasn't strange at all. 

With a sigh, she shucked off the jeans and reached for a pair of sweatpants that she'd swore up and down she wouldn't be caught dead in, and dragged them on. Her body did a little shudder of pleasure at how comfortable the pants were that made her roll her eyes. What did it matter that they were too long and a nasty shade of green? When she looked like she was smuggling a large ball under her shirt, nobody was paying attention to what she was wearing. 

By the time she reached medical, Jackson had already done all the heavy lifting for the day, which meant she was left to deal with the line of female patients who'd lined up to wait for her. The were rather a lot of them. 

Jackson handed her a chart. 

"Rowena Hill, thirty-seven and a half weeks. Complaining of, um, braxton hicks and bad indigestion."

Abby forced a smile onto her face and slipped past the curtain into their prenatal room. The woman was already waiting on the examination bed, legs splayed. 

"How are you this morning, Rowena?" She said, pulling on her gloves. 

\---

By the end of the shift, Abby eased herself down into the nearest chair and put her burning feet up. 

"I can't do this anymore, Jackson."

"Sorry Abby," he responded, his look of sympathy so sincere she wanted to smack it off his face. 

"What are we going to do when they all deliver? I can't preside over twelve births at once--not to mention my own."

"They won't all give birth at the same time. And you've already delivered one."

"And lost two before that, I know. It's just… the odds are against us." She screwed her eyes shut as she leaned her head back against the wall. "Why the hell didn't we even think this could be a possibility?"

Jackson blushed as he stared at the floor. "Probably because we were a bit preoccupied at the time--rescuing the forty-seven from Mount Weather. And then the subsequent celebration when they returned..."

"Yes, but it didn't occur to any of us? Not one of us?" She shook her head. "We're all fucking idiots."

Her assistant could only shrug. 

Abby sighed and rubbed her belly in the absent minded habit she'd picked up in the last several weeks. "Me. I should have known better. I knew about the infertility drug in our water supply. How else do you control a population? We had to petition for the right to have a child, and that was only granted if there was an opening in the population. I would even administer the injections to counteract the drug so that a couple could conceive. I should have known that, eventually, the contraceptive would wear off."

"It's not your fault," Jackson said. 

Abby glared at him. "Really? Because I'm pretty sure I'm entirely to blame."

Jackson made some excuse to remove himself from her presence, and Abby covered her face with hands. She really was too old for this, but it seemed like the universe was intent on punishing her for her past sins. The ache in her lower back radiated out, and was painful enough to make her want to curl up in the chair and welcome the oblivion of sleep, but her duties for the day weren't over yet. She had one more patient to visit.

Camp Jaha's very first grounder, Colin Finn Reyes, was a tiny cherub with pink cheeks, and a surprising amount of dark hair. He slept with his chubby fist half in his mouth curled up against his mother's breast in a sling contraption that allowed Raven to free up her hands. Hence, when Abby found her and the infant, she was leaning over a workbench and tinkering with something electronic while her son slept on. 

Raven looked up from her work with a grin as Abby walked in. "Rough day, doc?" 

"I've had better. You?" 

"He's been cooperative today." Raven laid a hand on the round of her sleeping son's head. "And when he did spit up, it was on Wick."

Untucking the infant from his sling, Raven handed him into Abby's waiting arms. The baby scrunched up his face as his comfort was disturbed, but he didn't wake. Abby snuggled his tiny body against her chest, and his warmth seeped through her skin. She marveled at the miracle of the child--and nature. Whether up on the Ark or down on the ground, life found a way to continue. 

"Have you been able to get any sleep?" 

Raven nodded. "Here and there. Wick helps when he can, but he's not the one with the food supply."

The baby started to make tiny smacking noises with his lips as he rooted around. His eyes opened, and Abby cooed at him. "Hey little guy, you hungry?"

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her side and gasped.

Raven reached out for her in concern, but Abby waved her off. She held one hand securely around the baby and rested the other on her stomach. "I'm fine," she said. "She's been using my organs as punching bags, lately. She'll be coming out ready to fight, this one. Just like Clarke."

"You think it's a girl?"

"I honestly don't know. This pregnancy is so different from when I had Clarke, but I still think of the baby as 'her'. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Raven nodded. Then, she bit her lip as she looked up at the older woman, a flash of hesitation on her face. "Abby… What are you going to do? When she--or he--comes?"

"Same as you, sweetheart. Love her, care for her, protect her as much as I can, hope for the best for her… what else is there?"

"No, I mean, without… you know. I have Wick at least. I'm not sure I could have gone through all of this on my own. And with Clarke, you had…"

"I had Jake." Abby nodded. "I'm not alone, Raven. I have Jackson, and Bellamy has promised to help when I need it, and you… all of you. I'll be fine."

"But… he doesn't even know."

"Who doesn't know?"

"Kane."

Abby ignored the ache in her chest and shifted the baby in her arms. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Raven rolled her eyes. "We're not idiots. We know he's the father. We came back from Mount Weather and neither of you could even look at anyone else, and it's like wherever you were, Kane was only a couple steps behind you. Then, a week later, he's packing to go on some suddenly urgent diplomatic mission to the tribes with Lincoln and Octavia. That was almost nine months ago. I can do the math."

The baby began to fuss in her grasp, and Abby patted him gently to soothe him. She let out a long breath, knowing that Raven was waiting for a response, but she couldn't find the words. Then, she felt the younger woman's hand on her arm. She looked up and gave Raven a rueful smile. "I suppose it's no use denying it."

"What happened? I mean, I don't want to interfere, but I think he's different down here, y'know? We all are in some ways, but he's changed more than anyone."

"That's where you're wrong. Marcus hasn't changed. He's only been given the freedom to be who he is. He's no longer constrained by that box in the sky we used to call home."

Raven frowned. "You care about him." It wasn't a question, but Abby nodded anyway. It had taken her all these months to come to terms with how she felt--she wasn't going to back down from it now. "You care about him, so why did you send him away?"

Abby shook her head. "I didn't send him away. He chose to leave."

She gasped as she felt the pain in her side once more, just as sharp as before, except this time it rolled around to her low back to join the ache she'd been feeling all morning. Raven reached out to steady her, then she took Colin from her arms as Abby moved to sit on the bench nearby. "You sure you're okay?"

She nodded as she breathed through the pain, and her suspicions were confirmed when it crested then subsided back to nothing more than an ache. "Damn it. Not now!"


	2. Fecund

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Up there, procreation was a duty, a directive for the continuation of the human race, yet we took life for granted. We floated so many, at a moment's notice, because we had to have some way of maintaining the balance."

Clarke lifted the flap of the entryway to the dwelling to step outside, and Marcus turned to nod at her. 

"How's she doing?"

Abby's daughter smiled in that weary way that Marcus had grown used to over the last couple of months they'd been traveling together. "Great, under the circumstances. Lincoln's given her something for the pain--he says she needs to get some rest or she'll wear herself out before it's all over."

"Okay. Good. That's good." When he'd no longer heard Octavia's cries of pain, he'd been even more anxious for her, but nothing short of a gun at his back could have made him go in there. 

"Look, Kane," Clarke drew herself up to him and faced him square on. He could see Abby in the tilt of her jaw, and had to suppress a smile. "You were right. It would have been stupid to avoid Ton DC like I wanted to do. She never would have made it back home, and would have ended up giving birth in a ditch somewhere along the way. I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"I want to get back to our people as much as you do," he said, shaking his head. "Coming here was just as dangerous. It was a gamble, either way."

Clarke looked around at the town, rebuilt from its ruin of so many months ago. Marcus had an inkling of what she was feeling, coming back here. She turned back to him. "We all have to make hard choices, now."

"These people--they celebrate life far more than we ever did on the Ark. Up there, procreation was a duty, a directive for the continuation of the human race, yet we took life for granted. We floated so many, at a moment's notice, because we had to have some way of maintaining the balance."

"What choice did you have?"

Marcus stared at Clarke. "There's always a choice."

The girl snorted. "You sound like my mother."

At that, Marcus could no longer keep the smile from tugging at his mouth. "Yes, I think she might have taught me something, after all." 

He watched Clarke hesitate, bite back a word, shake her head, let out a sigh, and then finally blurt out, "I don't get it?"  
"Get what?"

"You and… and my mom! You're supposed to hate each other."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Hate is a strong word."

"But you pressed charges against my dad and me. You did nothing to stop Jaha from floating him. And even before that you were always butting heads about one thing or another. You do. You hate each other." Clarke let out an angry puff of air. "Yet, somehow, somewhere, things changed. Because now she's Chancellor and you are her closest confidante. What happened?"

He found a loose thread at the cuff of his jacket that became very interesting all of a sudden. "It wasn't one defining thing… Abby and I… I mean Chancellor Griffin and I--we go about things in pretty much the polar opposite way, but, I've come to realize that our… er… goals are one and the same. It just took me a while, that's all." 

He shrugged, hoping that Clarke didn't pick up on the strain in his voice. Unfortunately, Clarke had a natural talent when it came to reading people. She shook her head. "The why the hell did she send you on this diplomatic mission that ended dragging you the length and breadth of the habitable zone for nine months?"

"She didn't send me… I volunteered to go." Clarke cocked her head at him and gave him a look that was so much like Abby that he felt the blood drain from his face. "Clarke. Please don't press the issue."

Her expression turned puzzled, but she nodded. "Fine. It's none of my business." 

Even though Clarke seemed to drop the matter, Marcus could tell she was by no means done pushing. Just done for now. She mumbled something about going to search out dinner, and he let out a sigh as he watched her stride away. He wasn't sure what he should tell Clarke about his relationship with her mother, wasn't sure how much of it was his to tell at this point, either.

He rubbed his face where it itched from the beard growth that he'd not had a chance to shave in over two months. He wondered if Abby would even recognize him when they returned. Part of him also wondered if she would even want him back--Marcus tried not to give life to those dark thoughts, if nothing else, he had to hold on to what slim hope he had that she'd forgiven him by now.

Instead he let his thoughts travel back, as he'd so often done through the slog and the exhilaration of the last nine months, to their last night together. 

\---

"We can send Bellamy. He'd want to go with his sister and Lincoln."

Marcus shook his head. "No. It has to be me."

The woman in front of him chewed her bottom lip as she considered him. There was a hole in the pit of his stomach, knowing that she was weighing the options against the one he'd placed before her, and knowing she'd come to the same conclusion as he had. Finally, she let out a sigh. "It's too soon, Marcus. It's been, what--a week since we got the kids back? You could at least wait for a few weeks."

"You know as well as I that it's not soon enough. The minute that Clarke brought down the Mountain Men we needed to capitalize on that and reach out to the tribes. Our safety here is vitally dependent on the alliances we can make."

He saw the moment her decision had been made. She turned her head away and her hand came up to wipe at her eyes. Her voice was shaking when she said, "How am I going to do this without you?"

"Abby…" He reached out for her without thought. He'd been doing that a lot, lately. As soon as his hand touched her shoulder, it was as if he'd granted her permission to bend, and she twisted into his arms.

He held her, not quite believing that he was. She didn't cry, but she clung to him, her fists bunching the material of his shirt at his chest, and her face pressed firmly against him. It astounded him how tiny she was, that this woman who was so full of fire, who was made of steel, was nothing more than a wisp. He dragged his broad hands up her back and held her closer. He had to find a way to protect her.

After a while, Abby shifted, and he relaxed to let her move away, but she took him by surprise once more by winding her arms around his neck and leaning further into him. Her eyes were lidded and heavy, her pupils blown wide, and when she licked her lips, he felt a deep pull inside him. It was only a short distance from there to meet her lips with his and give in to the kiss.

The kiss turned electrifying. Marcus found his hunger for her to be insatiable. He wanted to consume, inhale her, and at the same time, he wanted to sink into her and be subsumed. She pushed him back to her cot, and came together, and parted, and came together again as they danced through the layers of their clothes. When they came together again with skin on skin, she charged him to lay on his back as she straddled him. 

Then, she sank down on top of him, and he slid smoothly into her. They both expressed the joining with moans of pleasure. The heady sensation of Abby wrapped firmly around him made the room spin, and Marcus couldn't control himself as he thrust up into her. The sweat shimmered on her body, glistening between her breasts in the dim light as she arched back, making her look like some golden goddess. 

Her cries drew him closer to the edge, and he steadied his hands on her hips, finding purchase in the flesh there. As she abandoned herself with one long shuddering moan, Marcus could only follow. He buried himself in her as she shook all around him, and came with a force that sparked stars behind his eyelids.

\---

His reimaginings sent him drifting, and he slid down to the ground where he leaned against the shelter and fell asleep. He was woken by Clarke, none too gently as she shook his shoulder. Marcus blinked and realized that the sun had moved a good distance across the sky. 

Clarke was beaming at him. Her eyes were alight and her grin was wide across her face. She was wiping her hands with a rag, and that's when he heard it--a thin reedy cry from inside the shelter behind him. 

Marcus scrambled to his feet. "Is she…?"

"It's a girl," Clarke said. "And they're both doing fine. More than fine. Amazing."


	3. Nascent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You want to know how close I am? I'm fucking close, okay. Don't worry, I'll let you know when I'm ready to push."
> 
> Warning: descriptions of childbirth in this one, but nothing too graphic.

NASCENT

The contractions were getting more intense and closer together. Each time, the burn that was a constant presence in her back would radiate around to her front in ever-increasing waves of pain that had her clutching the side of the bed for support as she leaned forward. 

Jackson and Raven coaxed her through the latest episode, and when the wave had subsided, she nodded to let them know she was through the worst of it.

"Clarke was never this bad," she said, her voice hoarse. Raven produced a canteen of water from somewhere and Abby took a grateful sip. 

"The baby is rotated, it's pressing on the back of your spine," Jackson said. He patted the bed. "Let's get you up here so I can check how far you've dilated."

Abby shook her head. "I'm not moving from this spot." For some reason, her position, standing bent over the side of the bed, was the most tolerable. Every inch of her ached, and she was covered in sweat from already having endured several hours of contractions, but right now, she didn't care, Her only thought was to get this baby out of her. 

"We need to see how close you are, to see if you're ready to push," Jackson said, his tone soothing, which only seemed to irritate her more. 

"You want to know how close I am? I'm fucking close, okay. Don't worry, I'll let you know when I'm ready to push." She felt the next wave creep up on her and groaned. Steadying herself, she bowed her head and pulled strength from a reservoir deep within her as she prepared to ride out the peak. 

She could feel the head of the child full inside her, putting pressure on her pelvis. A roll of nausea accompanied the pain, and suddenly she felt the urge to bear down. Her vision went dark, and Abby cried out, a sound that was almost animalistic, as she gripped the edge of the bed. The urge ebbed, and the pain of the contraction receded enough for her to gain awareness of her surroundings once more. 

There was a crashing sound at the entrance to the med-tent that drew her attention, as if a tray of instruments had been knocked to the ground. Abby gasped at who she saw.

"Mom!"

Surely the girl standing there couldn't possibly be real. "Clarke." Her daughter's name sounded like a croak as it came out.

"Mom, oh my god." Clarke flew up to her, to be stopped by Raven.

"Back up kiddo. We're in the middle of something here," Raven said.

"It's okay," Abby said. She started to shake. She didn't know how, or why, but Clarke was here. And then her daughter's arms were around her and she knew it was all going to be all right. 

"I don't understand," Clarke said when she pulled back. Her face was wet when Abby brushed her fingers over it.

"Me neither." Abby wanted to laugh. 

"Mom… I think…" Clarke's eyes darted in the direction of the entrance, and when Abby's eyes followed, she felt as if the bottom of her world suddenly gave way. 

"Marcus," she breathed. 

The next contraction slammed into her without warning. Abby cried out as her legs buckled. Strong arms caught her, she didn't know whose, and held her up as she again felt her body bear down. 

"That's it. Abby, you're doing great, keep pushing. You're doing it."

She grunted as she pushed as hard as she was able to. It felt good to push. Her whole body, every nerve and fiber, was focused on the task. The voice in her ear continued to encourage her, and she held onto its thread. 

"Take a breath. Slow and steady. That's it. One… Two… Three… Push again."

She could do this. She was doing this. Abby let out a long, guttural cry as she pushed through the pain.

"Clarke can see the head. Your baby is coming, Abby. Just once more, okay? Can you do this one more time?"

Abby nodded. It was Marcus' face in front of her, his strong arms holding her up, his voice pulling her through to the other side. He smiled, his eyes so kind, as he brushed her hair from her face. 

"Ready?" he said softly. "Now push…"

She drew from everything she had in her and bore down, moaning low at the pain that sliced through her. The pressure that had built in her pelvis seemed to give way, and then a wave of euphoria flooded through her as she felt the child slip from her body.

"Mom, you did it!" Clarke held the tiny, squirming infant in her hands. She stood from where she had knelt down to catch the baby, and while it was still attached to its umbilical, she handed it into Abby's waiting arms. "It's a girl, mom! A girl!" 

"Daughter," Abby said as she looked at the impossibly large eyes in the most precious face she'd ever seen, then she burst into tears. The sound of the baby's cry filled the tent. 

Eventually, Jackson, cut the umbilical, and took charge of cleaning and weighing the newborn while Clarke and Marcus coached her through the afterbirth. 

After everything was cleaned up, and Abby was settled in bed with her new daughter brought to her breast for feeding, she looked up at Clarke and Marcus. 

"How?" she said.

A world of meaning was contained in that one word.

Marcus cleared his throat as he put a finger on the suckling infant's cheek. "I could ask you the same thing."

Abby didn't know what she was supposed to be feeling. There was elation, and then there was a bone-numbing weariness. There was overwhelming relief, and then there was a fiery kind of anger. She looked from the head of her baby up to Marcus and then to Clarke who was hovering on the other side. "No. I think you both owe me an explanation first."

Clarke sighed. "You're right, mom." She shot Marcus a look, and then continued on. "Kane found me a few months ago. It took him a while, but he finally convinced me it was time to come home. Especially since Octavia was..." Her words trailed off and she shut her mouth.

Abby's eyebrows pinched together with concern. She'd forgotten about Octavia and Lincoln. "What about her? Is she okay? And Lincoln?"

"They're fine. Both of them," Marcus reassured her. "It was only that, well…" He looked down at the baby.

With a snort, Abby said, "Let me guess… She's pregnant."

"Not anymore," Clarke said, her mouth lifting into a smile. 

"Not anymore?" 

"Three weeks ago. Another girl." 

 

Abby shook her head. "Raven's boy is almost two weeks old, and we have twelve more pregnancies nearing the end of their third trimester."

"That's one way to grow our numbers," Clarke said. She looked across at Marcus, and something wordless passed between them. "I think I, um, should go and find Bellamy. Last I saw him he was still trying to get over the shock of having a niece."

"What about you?" Abby put her hand on Clarke's arm. Feeling Clarke's warm skin beneath her palm settled her. She was real. "Do you think you can handle a sister?"

Clarke settled her hand on the baby's head and smiled. "I'm sure Bellamy could give me pointers on what not to do." She leaned in and kissed Abby's cheek, then said into her ear, "I'm glad I didn't miss this. I'm glad I came home."

When Clarke left the tent, it was just her, Marcus and the baby. Abby looked down to see the newborn grasping at the side of her breast while she was figuring out how to suck. Her milk wouldn't come in for another couple of days, but the colostrum that she produced would nourish the newborn until then. A sense of wonder welled up inside her, and spilled out in the form of tears that slipped down her cheeks. 

"Oh Abby," Marcus said. "I'm so sorry."

"She's your daughter, Marcus."

There was pain etched in his expression. "I'm not sure I have a right to claim her."

"You have every right. She's yours," Abby said fiercely. She reached for him with her free hand and brought him close until she felt the touch of his forehead against hers. What she left unspoken was that she was his, too, if he would have her.

"You have to know why I left without telling you. Why I never said goodbye."

"You think I don't know?" He squeezed his eyes shut and nodded his head a fraction. "Oh, Marcus. Of course I knew why. I didn't want you to go, of course I didn't, but I knew it had to be you. Somewhere along the way you managed to make me fall so desperately in love with you, that I couldn't let you go. It's why I made love to you that night. I thought if I did, you wouldn't want to leave."

"I didn't want to."

"I know. I know… God do I know. But when we made love, you showed me your heart, Marcus. I knew how much you loved me, so much that you'd do whatever you could to protect us. I let you go, because I had to." She dragged her hand down his cheek and brushed her fingers across his lips. "I was awake when you slipped out of my bed, but I never told you because if I had--"

"I would never have been able to leave you."

"We both did what we had to do."

"I love you, Abby."

She smiled and kissed him. She was done with words, now. Marcus had brought back one daughter and given her another. He had also brought them alliances that would mean both of her daughters had a future to look forward to. If he was in any doubt as to how she felt about him, she would spend the rest of her life making sure all those doubts were erased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for joining me on this fun, if somewhat bizarre ride!


End file.
